In his third year as the CEO of Johnson & Johnson, Joaquin Duato received an overall compensation package worth $24.3 million. It was a 14% decrease from his $28.4 million figure in 2023, when he was the world’s highest-paid Big Pharma chief executive.
The reduction is due largely to calculations surrounding changes in the CEO's pension value from year to year. While his estimated pension value grew by $6.2 million in 2023, the increase was $2.7 million in 2024, according (PDF) to a regulatory filing.
Duato, 62, also saw decreases in his bonus—from $4.4 million in 2023 to $4 million last year—and in his equity awards, which fell from $16 million to $15.7 million from year to year.
J&J also reported that it spent $145,381 on Duato’s use of personal aircraft and $102,779 on home security services last year.
In 2024, J&J generated significantly more sales than any company in the life sciences industry at $88.8 billion, which was a 4.3% increase year over year. In 2023, J&J realized a 6.5% increase in revenue.
Still, the company has continued to struggle in resolving its talc litigation—which is now in its third bankruptcy effort. In its proxy, J&J said that it “recorded an accounting charge of $5.1 billion related to talc matters in 2024.”
J&J added that it determined it was in the “best interest of the company and shareholders to exclude the $5.1 billion talc settlement charge” from its executive compensation considerations.
"The underlying events and decisions that resulted in the talc-related litigation charges occurred before company executives assumed their current roles," the company explained. "Company executives have taken steps to mitigate the impact of the litigation on behalf of the company and shareholders."
In addition, a graph charting shareholder returns for peer group companies shows J&J’s returns declining over the past two years while returns for J&J’s peer group companies have increased.
The graph shows that $100 invested in J&J back in 2019 would have been worth about $115 in 2024. But for an index of other large-cap pharma companies, the number was $155.
Duato took the helm at J&J at the start of 2022, succeeding Alex Gorsky, who guided the company for a decade. During his tenure, Gorsky twice collected more than $29 million in annual compensation. In his final year (2021), Gorsky was the highest-paid Big Pharma exec at $26.7 million.
Among other J&J execs, chief financial officer Joseph Wolk saw his compensation decline from $13.9 million to $12.6 million from 2023 to 2024.
Innovative medicines chief Jennifer Taubert received $11.2 million in total compensation last year, while R&D chief John Reed, M.D., Ph.D., collected a $9.3 million pay package. In his first year as Medtech chief, Tim Schmid scored a compensation package worth $11.9 million.